A Demi-gods Crime
by I am the Skai
Summary: A demi-god is murdered in New York while trying to find Percy to tell him important news. Now its up to Annabeth, Percy and the NYPD's finest decetives to find the killer. Set after the Gaea/giants war.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle or PJO.**

**Percy's POV**

"C'mon Annabeth," I whined. "I'm telling you, that thing wasn't human."

"Whatever you say, Perce," Annabeth responded, not looking up from her book.

I still don't get how she walks and read without tripping, getting lost or wandering into the street. She says it 'skill', but I've had to save her from loads of near death mortal experiences.

"Well, look at that kid over there…" I pointed to a kid lying face-down on the pavement, "He looks dead to me…"

Finally she looked up, then she turned to me, her eyes wide. "That's cuz he _is_ dead Percy…"

**Castle's POV**

"Beckett." Kate answered the phone, conveniently bringing an end to our conversation. Suddenly, she sat up, "Where?" she scribbled something on a paper, "Okay, we're on our way."

"Dead body?" I asked hopefully.

"You got lucky Castle," she grinned, rising. "On your first paper-work-day."

Minutes later we were at the crime scene, due to Beckett's wonderful driving. There's a couple standing near the body, kids in their late teens. The boy with jet black hair, the blonde girl.

"Damn…" Kate muttered, climbing out of the car, "A pair of kids found 'em. They'd be traumatized…"

"Counselor Beckett to the rescue…" I mocked, posing like superman. She just rolled her eyes at me.

About ten steps away, I realized I know this kid, the boy. I'd seen him somewhere… We stopped right in front of the couple, with me frowning at the boy. He looked at me quizzically then mirrored my expression.

"Percy, don't mock the officers," the blonde girl chided. The boy ignored her. But how had she seen him, her eyes were gray; wasn't she blind…?

"I know you…" he and I said at the same time, pointing accusingly. I could just imagine Kate and the girl looking at each other and back and forth between us.

"From where?" Kate asked finally.

"I don't…" then it clicked. "Wait! Your Paul's wife's kid!" The boy's face lit up.

"Yeah," he added quickly. "You're Paul's step-brother…"

"Well that's one impossible mystery solved…" Beckett muttered dryly.

"Now for the real mystery," the blonde girl added. Beckett smiled at her before turning to Lanie.

**Beckett's POV**

While Castle stared at the boy witness, the girl and I headed over to Lanie.

"Michael Thomas," Lanie said, standing. "Murdered early this morning. Mr. Thomas suffered multiple blows in the head with a blunt object. Much more than the necessary. He was probably dead after the first blow." Then she looked around us, looking at Castle and the boy.

"Castle find a new muse?" she asked finally. Both the girl and I snorted at Lanie's dry humor. "And who's your new side-kick Beckett?" she asks, glancing at the girl.

"Oh, sorry," the girl said, "I forgot, I'm Annabeth Chase and that's Percy Jackson, my boyfriend." She pointed to the boy and Castle, who were now playing the 'Mirror Game'. How did she know they were there? Isn't she blind?

"Dr. Lanie Parish. Nice to meet you Annabeth…" Lanie smiled, "Looks like your side-kick prioritizes better than you, Beckett," she grinned at me then walked away, ignoring my glare.

"Um, what's she talking about?" Annabeth asked nervously.

"Nothing, she's just being Lanie." I sighed. "Anyway, let's get you guys back to the precinct and find out how much your boyfriend saw. Let's go, Castle!"

"I saw too…" Annabeth raised an eyebrow at me.

"But your eyes… You're blind, right?" I asked, confused.

"Cops…" she muttered under her breath, "No, I was born like this. I can see you perfectly fine. You have long brown hair and brown eyes. You're very pretty, your partner likes you and you like him and you know how to dress."

"Wait, what was that last one?" I stared at her.

"You know how to dress..?"

"Before that."

"You like your partner." she said, "What? It's _really_ obvious, especially after what Dr. Lanie said."

"Yeah, what did Lanie say?" Castle said, appearing out of nowhere.

"Tell you on the drive." I muttered, walking away.

* * *

**This is one of the new stories Iwas talking about. Plz R&R**

**-S**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't PJO or Castle**

**Chapter 2**

**Percy's POV**

"Alright Mr. Jackson, where were you and Miss Chase between 8 last night and about 5 this morning?" Detective Esposito asked Annabeth and me across the table of the interrogation room.

"Um," I paused, thinking, "We were at my house..." Both men raised their eyebrows at us. I felt myself turn red. Annabeth's face was red too.

"Doing what?" Detective Ryan leaned forward, smiling slightly.

"Couple stuff…" I tried softly.

"Just kidding man." It was Esposito's turn to smile. "As long as we know you were both there."

"So you saw each her, right Percy, at your house?" Ryan said seriously.

"Definitely," I said without thinking. Both guys looked up and Annabeth face-palmed, blushing, "I-I mean, I'm sure I saw her…"

"Okay guys," Esposito grinned. "You can go now…"

"Thank you," Annabeth said finally. The detectives left.

"You really are an idiot you know that?" Annabeth smiled.

"What, I panicked," I sighed. She laughed, talking my hand.

"Geez, these _detectives_…" Annabeth muttered, rubbing her brow with her other hand.

"What about them?" I asked immediately "Did they say something that I missed?"

"Yes and no…" she sighed, "Percy' they think I'm blind. Haven't you noticed; Detective Ryan asked _you_ if you were sure you saw me."

"Because of your eyes?" I asked confused, "I don't think I ever thought you were blind… I guess I'm just special…"

"Nope, I gave you reason to believe that I could see so you took it for granted."

"Whatever you say…" I grinned, kissing her nose.

"Sally's gonna kill us…" she said after a while.

"Damn! We told her we would be right back didn't we!?" I cursed.

"Yep," Annabeth's eyes danced.

"We should probably call her…" I suggested.

"Look at you Seaweed brain, getting smarter every day," she mocked.

"You must be rubbing off on me Wise girl," I kissed her on the cheek.

"Hold on…" she muttered softly, "We're in an interrogation room. In all the detective shows we've watched, the mirror in here is…"

"One-way glass…"

"Crap, wonder how many people are on the other side…" she whispered.

"Only one way to find out…" I got up and went over to the glass.

"Careful, don't crack the mirror." I saw her smirk in the reflection.

"Ha-ha. Very funny…" then I pressed my face against the glass, "Hello!"

**Beckett's POV**

"Are you sure he's just your step-brother's step-son?" I asked, smirking at Percy's face pressed up against the glass. I must admit though, they were both smarter than they looked, it surprised me.

"I know right," Castle smiled, shaking his head.

"Nah, he's more cautious than Castle," Ryan smiled.

"But the curiosity is equal," Esposito added.

"So is the stupidity," Captain Gates added, ducking into the room.

"Hello! I'm standing _right here_!" Castle pouted.

"Hello!" Percy yelled louder, waving his arms. I could just see Annabeth, still sitting at the table, trying hard not to laugh.

"Alright, shows over," Gates said "Get them out of there and someone clean that glass. I sighed and followed the Captain outside, leaving Castle, Ryan and Espo inside.

"Ms. Chase, Mr. Jackson?" I called, opening the door to the 'box'. Annabeth got up and Percy pealed his face from the glass with a pop.

"Ow," he muttered. Annabeth and I snickered at him.

"Where we going?"Percy asked as we walked down the hall towards my desk.

"Well first, I think you should call that Sally person…" I smiled, pointing Percy towards the pay phone.

"Thank you so much," he said, running off. Then I turned to Annabeth.

"Aren't you jealous?" She looked at me confused. "I mean of this Sally person." I elaborated. "I thought you said he was your boyfriend…"

At this point Annabeth burst out laughing.

"Sally is his _mom_, detective," she smiled. "And I think I've had enough of getting jealous over hunches about Percy's secret life; if he ever had one."

"You make it sound like he tells you everything."

"Not _everything_, everything," she corrected. "But what he doesn't tell me, I squeeze it out of him," she added with a smile.

"Oooh, looks like Beckett found her new evil twin." Ryan smirked as he walked past us to his desk.

"And the time it took you to see recognize the one-way glass…" Castle smiled, "Totally Beckett-ish."

"Beckett-ish…" Annabeth and I muttered slowly, thinking on the stupidity of the word.

"See, she's ever better than us," Castle protested. "With the joint talking," he added awkwardly.

"Anyway, how many of you guys were on the other side of the glass?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah, no-one answered me," Percy pouted, hugging Annabeth from behind.

"You know we could have just asked them to knock the amount of people on the other side," Annabeth smirked. Percy reddened.

"But that's boring!" He whined. Everyone laughed.

"Ahem!" Gates' voice made us all jump.

"I, uh, I gotta go chase down some leads…" Ryan slipped away to his desk.

"Copy that," Espo disappeared too.

"Detective Beckett." Captain Gates barked, "I suggest you begin the investigation. And for you two."

She glared at Annabeth and Percy.

"You've been released. Shoo." Gates glared at them.

"Okay…" they said together heading to the elevator.

"Oh, I could drop you to Paul's place," Castle offered, following them.

"It's cool, Rick." Percy insisted, but Castle insisted on escorting them to the ground floor.

* * *

**Thnx for reading. Hoped u liked**

**-S**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Castle**

**Chapter 3**

**Percy's POV**

"So, take care of yourself, Rick." I shook Castle's hand.

"You too," he smiled, "And your friend here."

"Good luck on the case." Annabeth said. "And with Detective Beckett." And with that we left him alone in the elevator.

"Annabeth that was a low blow," I scolded her.

"Yeah but it's as clear as day, don't tell me you didn't see it." She rolled her eyes.

"So," I asked as we walked down the street. "Back to the crime scene?"

"You know me too well."

It didn't take us long to run the two blocks and as we jogged up, the last police cars were pulling away. There was already a crowd around the yellow caution tape.

"You make small talk with the crowd, I'll check the scene," Annabeth proposed, taking out her invisibility hat.

"Yep, meet you at the car in 20 minutes," I agreed. "And whistle if there's trouble."

"Like there'll be any." She slipped away, disappearing before she reached the big crowd. I walked towards the crowd slowly, looking for someone to talk to. Then I saw someone I actually knew, Nico Di' Angelo.

"Watching corpses again Nico," I leaned on his shoulder.

"Only the demigod kind."

"What?!" I asked incredulously, "Whose?!"

"Apollo."

**Beckett POV**

"Hey, we got a hit on Michael's parents, or parent," Ryan said walking into the room.

I looked up expectantly.

"A George-Ann Thomas in Connecticut," Espo sighed, "reported her missing son, Michael last month."

"K…?" I muttered, reaching for the phone. "What's the number?"

"No need for that pretty lady." A tall handsome man with blonde appeared at my door suddenly. "I will inform George-Ann of her loss…"

"And who are you exactly?" Castle asked testily.

"I am…-" the man was cut off by the sight of Percy, Annabeth and another boy, an emo-looking kid a little younger than them appearing from the shadow of the murder board. The other boy was dressed black jeans, a white shirt and a black aviator's jacket. He had brown hair and greenish eyes. He hung back with Annabeth while Percy stalked straight up to the man and started yelling in a foreign language.

"Είσαι τρελός, ο Απόλλωνας; Φέρνοντας τακτική θνητοί σε αυτό?!" (Are you crazy, Apollo? Bringing regular mortals into this?!) Percy was in a rage, his face beet red.

"Λοιπόν, από όπου και αν ανάμιξη στο θάνατο του γιου μου! Τι να έκανα, Percy, αφήστε τους να σας κατηγορήσει?"(Well, they're meddling in the death of my son! What was I to do, Percy, let them blame you?) At this point Percy paused and thought, pacing the room.

"What language is that?" Ryan asked softly. No answered him.

I finally recognized the language- it was…Greek? But not Modern Greek, some of the sounds were funny…older.

Percy got into a rage again, screaming at the man.

"Αυτοί οι άνθρωποι είναι ένα μέρος της οικογένειάς μου! Πόσες φορές σου έχω πει θεούς να μην χάος με το μου -?!" (These people are a part of my family! How many times have I told you gods not to mess with my -)

"Νομίζεις ότι θέλω να συσχετίσω με αυτές θνητούς!" (You think I want to associate with these mortals!?) The man screamed, pushing his face into Percy's.

Then all hell broke loose.

"Don't touch him!" Castle yelled suddenly, dragging the man off of Percy. The man looked over his shoulder at us, leering at us as if he hated us for existing. Then he turned to Castle, who was still holding him tightly. With barely a flick of his shoulder, he tossed Castle across the room, sending him smack against the wall.

Percy screamed something else at the man and charged towards him.

Before we could even grab our guns, Annabeth tackled Percy and they both fell to the floor.

"Nico, go tell Απόλλων (Apollo) to cool it." Annabeth called glancing at the emo-looking kid.

The rest of us ran over to where Castle was still slumped against the far wall.

"Castle? Are you okay?" I asked crouching beside him.

"I will be as soon as the world stops spinning…" he muttered.

"Come on," Ryan grunted; lifting Castle's left arm. "Let's get you to a chair." As we headed back into the main room, we saw Annabeth standing over Percy, talking sternly to him. After a while she walked towards the man, ready to give him the same scolding. Before she could even open her mouth, he reached up and boxed her across the face.

Percy snapped again, getting up. "First you try to kill my friend then you attack my girlfriend!? What else do you plan to destroy in my life!?"

Annabeth glared at Percy over her shoulder and he immediately shut up and sat. Turning back to the man, she did something I would have never expected Annabeth to do. She reached down and hit him back across the cheek, hard. I guess this was really uncharacteristic for her because Nico jumped and Percy sat up straight in his chair.

"You're here in mortal form, pull yourself together and deal with it," she said softly but firmly.

"Ryan, Espo, let's get this whole mad house together in one room and see if we can sort this out," I said to them. "And get an ice pack for Castle." They nodded.

"No, I'm fine…"

"You're getting an ice pack unless you want me to call Alexis and Martha, capisce?"

"Yes ma'am," he replied.

I stood and quickly dialed, asking Lanie to come to interrogation room 5, ASAP.

Ryan and Espo headed over to the blondie and asked Annabeth to ask him if he would come to the interrogation room with us so we could sort everything out.

Before Annabeth could speak the man replied haughtily, "I do speak English you know."

Castle and I exchanged glances. I shrugged. It takes all sorts to make a world.

In a few minutes we were all seated around a table in the room. Castle was gingerly holding an ice pack Ryan had gotten for him. Lanie was the last to come in and of course the first thing she saw was Apollo brooding in a corner. I saw her look him up and down, then glance almost hopefully at me.

I glared, meaning 'Don't you dare.' She mimed zipping her lips shut and came to sit beside me, making a total of 9 people and ten chairs. I almost raised an eyebrow. Why did Nico have an empty chair beside him? But I shrugged it off.

"Explain," I said to the kids. "Now."

They exchanged glances as if having a conversation, as if to say 'How much should we tell?' I glanced at the man who looked away, nose in the air as if he wanted nothing to do with me.

Nico's phone beeped, he took out a phone and glance at it. Percy and Annabeth looked shocked.

"Thalia's on her way," he said without looking up or meeting their eyes.

"Well crap," Percy said shortly.

"Why? And why do you have that?" Annabeth gestured to the phone as if it were unimaginably dangerous.

"Emergencies?" Nico offered lamely.

Annabeth sighed. "Whatever Nico, just don't get yourself killed."

The man suddenly spoke, but not to us. "Tell them whatever you like. I don't carry messages. I'm not Hermes."

"Yeah, since you're not even supposed to be here!" Percy snapped back.

"Okay, cool it," Annabeth said

"Alright," I said, "Let's start here. Who is this?" I gestured to the man. "And what's his relation to George-Ann Thomas?"

They exchanged glances again, as if not sure how much if anything they could tell us. Nico suddenly stood as if to escape

"I'm going to meet Thalia. She must be almost here."

"No need," a girl's voice came from the door. "I'm here." She opened the door and slid into the seat Nico had held beside her. So that's why there had been an extra chair.

Nico sat back down almost reluctantly. I glanced at Thalia. She was like a Goth girl, dressed in all black and purple with studs, and ripped jeans. She wore a silver circlet around her head and a bracelet on her arm that seemed way out of place. Her hair was short, black and jagged, and she had freckles across her nose.

Nico spoke. "So are we telling them?"

"Might as well," Annabeth replied.

"What other choice do we have?"Percy added.

Thalia leaned back in her seat. "You guys are on your own, Artemis just sent me as back up."

The man suddenly woke up. "My sister sent you?! For me?! Oh she really is too kind…I should compose a haiku in her honor…"

"Save it," Percy growled at him.

"I'm not your back up," Thalia snapped back, glancing at Percy. Those two must be related somehow.

"I guess we'll start with introductions," he said. Annabeth nodded.

"Don't freak," she added.

"We're police detectives," I said clearly. "We don't freak."

"But more seriously, we're dealt with vampires, were wolves…" Ryan started

"Zombies, freaky dominatrix…" Espo added, ticking them off on his fingers. Ryan nodded.

"And regular murderers," Lanie added. "They pretty scary too."

"Yeah but take no responsibility for Castle," Espo added. We grinned.

"Hey, not cool," Castle replied.

"Ever dealt with gods?" Annabeth asked quietly.

"Greek gods?" Castle asked.

"Yeah…how'd you…?" Nico asked.

I interrupted him. "Percy was speaking some form of Greek…"

"Not modern day though…" Castle added wincing as he moved his jaw.

"It was Ancient Greek," Annabeth explained, "And the Ancient Greek gods are real."

"We're demigods, children of a Greek god and a mortal." Percy took a deep breath. "I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

"I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

"Nico Di'Angelo, Son of Hades."

"Thalia Grace, Daughter of Zeus and Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis."

There was silence in the room as we tried to take all that in. The man still had his nose stuck in the air. If he kept that up, soon he's have a serious neck-ache.

The kids studied us as if waiting to see our reaction.

Castle spoke first. "That is… so COOL!"

I face-palmed; Ryan and Espo looked almost as excited as Castle was. I guess I'd have to take point.

"So what does that have to do with our Vic? And who's the blondie?"

He at us smiling radiantly; Lanie caught her breath.

"This is Apollo," Annabeth said. "One of the Greek gods, also he's Michael's father."

"So Michael is-was a demi-god?" I asked.

Thalia nodded. Hey, this might not be so hard after all.

* * *

**We alawys new Castle was crazy  
Anyway, hope u liked, thnx 4 reading. Plz R&R.**

**-S**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I only own ideas.**

**Chapter 4**

**Percy's POV**

It didn't take me and Annabeth and Nico to explain all about gods, mortals, Camp Half-Blood, monsters and all the scary creatures that love to come after us demi-gods.

I expected no help from Thalia, and we got none. In fact her comment under her breath was, "Why don't we just show them the whole damn orientation video?"

But I felt like it was important. We had no clue who (or what) had killed Michael but he had been one of us. And if these detectives needed to know about us and our world for Michael's killer to be found, I would tell them out story a hundred times over.

The medical examiner, Lanie, summed up everything we had said nicely. "So basically, there are a whole bunch o' gods basically controlling life as we know it without our knowledge; just runnin' around makin' a whole heap o kids with regular people, and this guy's," she jerked her thumb at Apollo, "one o them cheatin' gods and our Vic's one o those poor kids?"

"Yep basically," Annabeth said.

Apollo glared at her. And I glared back. Screw him- he thought he could just launch himself into a mortal world and act like he was a god?! Puh-lease.

"You know it's true," I said to Apollo. "Even after the agreement I made all you gods sign to recognize your children…"

"I still can't understand why you would turn down immortality," Apollo said sighing. The humans stared at me incredulously, Rick, or Castle as they call him, raised an eyebrow. I glanced suggestively at Annabeth; the detectives all caught the look and they began smiling and Esposito laughed aloud.

"But anyway," Apollo continued, "I had already claimed Michael; he knew he was my son. He came into New York to find you."

I almost reeled back in shock. "Me?"

Annabeth and I exchanged glances. What could have happened to this demi-god that he would come to find us, alone? I looked up to see all the detectives, and Rick, looking at me. I shrugged and shook my head, indicating that I didn't understand either.

"Wait a sec," Beckett said suddenly, "You two, Annabeth and Percy, you and another kid went on a cross-country runaway from that kidnapper, about 6 years ago. Weren't you?"

"That was 6 years ago?!" Annabeth asked.

"I know right, it feels like it was about 50," I smiled.

"Yeah, I remember that case," Esposito said. "It was back when I was in the 45th."

"I got the furniture from your step-dad's store," Ryan smiled. At this time I cracked up, remembering all the crazy things that happened on that quest. Suddenly, everything went black; I was back in Tartarus, in the dark. There was a small difference from the real Tartarus though, Annabeth's not there, I'm alone. Then I hear it, she's screaming my name, she's in pain and no matter how hard I look, I can't find her.

"Percy?" I hear her voice again, she's not in pain, but she's defiantly worried.

"I'm good…" I say sitting up straight in my chair and wiping the cold sweat from my face. I smiled at the mortals, pretending nothing was wrong, but I find Annabeth's hand and give it a squeeze.

Beckett raised an eyebrow at me and opened her mouth to say something, but Annabeth glared and shook her head. Beckett dropped it.

"Yeah," Beckett said. "So I think you've given us all your relevant info. You're free to go, all of you."

"Thank you detective," Thalia said, before turning to Apollo, "You heard her blondie, move it. Lady Artemis wants to meet you by 'Thena's statue." Apollo sighed and shuffled out of the room with Nico and Thalia.

"Athena has a statue in New York?" Castle asked. "How come I've never seen it?"

"Really?" I joked. "Never seen a big blue lady off the East Coast?!"

"Big blue lady?" Ryan asked, clearly confused.

"Lady Liberty?" Esposito asked. "Statue of Liberty?"

"That's how your mom looks?!" Rick asked Annabeth. He had gotten rid of the ice pack, but was still rubbing the back of his neck. We both laughed.

"Actually, it looks nothing like her." Annabeth grinned, "I don't know what Frédéric was thinking. Mom almost killed him."

"She almost killed her own son!?" I cried.

"Your dad almost killed you once."

"I wasn't gonna die!" I protested.

"Percy, you were smoking!" she hissed.

"Aren't I always?" I joked. Everyone laughed.

"Anyway, we should go now before your boss catches us again." Annabeth smiled.

We rose, leaving the room hand in hand with the detectives behind us. At the same time, the Twelfth Precinct boss-lady who had shoo-ed us out earlier was leaving her office.

"Didn't I run these kids already, Detective Beckett?"

"Yes sir, but they are assisting in our investigation; they had a connection to our victim. Guys, this is Captain Gates," Beckett covered quickly, thank gods Nico, Thals and Apollo were already gone. Annabeth and I nodded respectfully.

"Ok, just don't get in my detectives' way," she glanced at us. "And no PDA got it?"

"Yes ma'am," I replied.

"Ma'am is my mother. If you're helping this investigation, call me Captain or Sir." She walked towards the break room.

"Yes sir," I corrected.

"Seriously, how does she even know what PDA is?" Rick blurted out.

"Castle!" Beckett hissed.

We all glanced nervously at Gates, who was filling her coffee cup, luckily out of ear-shot when Rick made his comment. We sighed.

"Anyway," I smiled, "It's getting late and I promised my mom I'd make dinner to make up for last night."

"I still don't understand what happened last night..." Espo snickered.

"Yeah were you at her house, or was she at yours?" Ryan picked up.

"I don't think that is relevant to the investigation..." Annabeth muttered, glaring at the boys, and then she smirked suddenly, "And what about you and your wife Detective Ryan? What were you two doing last night?"

"That's... um...That's classified info..."

"Later guys," I snickered grabbing Annabeth's hand and heading for the elevator.

"Hey Espo," I called from the elevator. "Good luck with Lanie!" We saw Castle and Beckett snickering at Espo, Lanie and Ryan before the doors closed.

* * *

**So fun... ;)  
Thnx 4 reading. Plz review.**

**-S**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Castle.**

**Chapter 5**

**Beckett's POV**

"So detective, any new leads?" Castle asked, placing my coffee on my desk.

"Not yet…" I sighed.

"Yo Beckett," Espo called from his desk. "Just got off the phone with the morgue. Lanie says she found an address written on the Vic's hand along with the letters P, J, S, o & P."

"Well then let's go." I said immediately.

"NYPD Open up!" Espo yelled, pounding on the door.

"Geez, is it that hard to knock…" Castle muttered. We all glared at him.

"NYPD!" Esposito yelled again but before he could bang on the door again it opened.

"I heard you the first time…" a male voice grumbled. "And you ever heard of this new thing? It's called knocking."

We all looked at the person opening the door.

"Percy?!" I said finally. It really was him dressed in a pair of blue boxers and a white t-shirt that read 'Seaweed Brain'.

"Uh hey guys?" he said nervously, "Whatchya doin' here?

"What are _you_ doing here?" I asked finally.

"I live here…" He stared at us quizzically.

"Who is it Perce?" I heard Annabeth's voice call from inside.

"What's this? Having friends over?" Javier smirked at a blushing Percy.

"Uh, it's just Beckett and them," he called back.

"Well, can we come in?" Ryan asked evilly.

"Hm…" Percy thought aloud. "Big crowd to make breakfast for."

"Pffft! You?! Make breakfast?!" Espo snickered. "This I gotta see."

"These are the best pancakes I have _ever_ tasted," Kevin said around a mouth of food. We didn't want to deprive them of their breakfast, which we all already had, but Percy insisted. So the four of us shared on of Percy's blue-chocolate-chip pancakes while he and Annabeth each had two.

"So what's up? Got any leads on Michael?" Annabeth asked pulling her long blond hair into a ponytail. She was looking very calm despite out sudden intrusion, in black shorts and a gray shirt that had 'Wise Girl' written in black letters.

"Our only lead led us here." I explained about the writing on Michael's hand.

"He really was looking for me…" Percy frowned.

"There were also a few letters beside the address, right?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah," Castle said, "P, J, S, O & P."

"Maybe they stand for something…" Ryan muttered as stared at the misshaped letters Percy had just drawn in his plate with syrup.

"Yeah like Please Just Save Old Pluto…" Castle supplied absentmindedly. We all looked at him.

"Nah, Pluto is Roman," Annabeth said absently.

"Or Perseus Jackson Son of Poseidon…" Percy said intelligently. He and Annabeth shared a look for about half a second. "I guess we really should call Chiron…"

"Oh wow, you _guess_?" Annabeth mocked.

Percy nodded solemnly. I could tell this had been a bit of a blowout last night.

"Can I use your fountain?" Annabeth asked, her voice sounded like an apology.

"Sure," Percy said, gathering up the plates to put them in the sink.

Castle and I exchanged looks. Fountain?

We followed Annabeth into the living room, where, sure enough, in the corner of the room, there was an actual fountain. About three feet tall with four unfamiliar creatures placed at cardinal points spewing water into a basin below them.

"No way," Javier gasped, grinning like a kid at Christmas.

"You want to talk Percy?" Annabeth asked.

I turned to see that Percy had followed us into the room.

"You can start; I'll add the important details…" Percy said, joining Annabeth by the fountain.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You mean the irrelevant details."

"Whatever, Iris owes me. She should let me send messages for free. This is like a tribute, a courtesy."

"Hey, do you want her to accept the offering of not?" Annabeth said, taking a large gold coin from a jar next to the fountain.

"Go ahead," Percy said sheepishly.

Annabeth raised the coin. "Oh Goddess, accept our offering." She dropped the coin into the base the fountain. "Chiron at Half-Blood Hill," she said clearly.

Suddenly an image appeared in the mist of the fountain that hadn't been there two seconds ago. There was a big blue two story house with a wrap-around porch, A big pine tree was in the background, with …was that a dragon?...wrapped around its base. Kids were running and training in the foreground. A man in a wheelchair had his back to us but turned to face us as Percy cleared his throat.

His face cleared and he smiled. "Annabeth and Percy, how are you?"

"We've got some trouble over this side Chiron," Annabeth said.

"Oh yes, Michael?" Chiron asked, arranging the blanket on his legs.

"How did you…?" Percy asked.

"Yes well, Nico sent us an Iris message about it and said he'd be looking into it, so I assume he went to visit his father's realm. He sent Thalia ahead to us with more details. She tells me this has attracted the attention of the local police?"

"Yeah, these are they," Percy said gesturing towards us.

"Ah," Chiron looked around Percy. "Good day detectives."

"Hey," Castle said. "I'm Paul's brother."

"Oh, Richard Castle, nice to finally meet you," Chiron smiled. "Your books are most intriguing." Then he turned to me, "And you must be the gorgeous detective Nico was telling me about. His description did you no justice."

I smiled.

"It's Nico," Percy said rolling his eyes, "The only detailed description you'd get outta him would be on a ghost."

"And the 'other two guys' I quote," Chiron smiled, "You must be 'the Hispanic one' and 'the Irish creep', I quote again."

"You're 'the Irish creep'!" Espo laughed at his frowning partner.

"And 'the Hispanic one' is that much better?" Ryan asked, "It sounds like you're Lord Voldemort-"

"Anyway Chiron, we need your help." I said, cutting off the boys' conversation before Castle joined in.

"How so?" he glanced at Annabeth and Percy.

"Well," Annabeth said lamely. "Michael was apparently trying to find us… well Percy."

"Really?" Chiron said interestingly. "Any idea why?"

"That's kind of why we were calling you," Percy said.

"Well, I'll do some research. You guys keep digging over there. I'll probably send Thalia back over to you. Artemis has put her lieutenant completely at the service of the police in order to have this cleared up as quickly as possible."

Percy grinned. "I bet Thalia was less than pleased."

"Quite," Chiron replied with a grim smile.

"How's the camp doing?' Annabeth asked.

"Not bad at all. You'll be happy to learn that Apollo cabin helped the Hephaestus cabin to rebuild the chariot and give it to the Ares cabin."

"Out of their own free will?" Percy asked, shocked.

"Not quite," Chiron smiled. "Ares cabin threatened to kill the Apollo cabin into fixing it. Hephaestus cabin, under Leo, was glad to fix it."

"As usual," Annabeth added.

"And the Athena and the minor cabins managed to steal the flag from the Ares, Apollo, Aphrodite cabins."

"Alright!" Annabeth cheered. "Athena can work with anyone but those three….

"Annabeth…" Percy warned playfully.

"Well good luck with your investigation from that side, Detectives," Chiron said.

"The 12th precinct will continue to ask for your help on the godly side of things," I added.

"Not a problem, my dear," Chiron said before standing.

He could stand? Then why'd he need a wheelchair?

But his legs were impossibly long and chestnut? Weird… Then his whole body was out of the chair, leaving a pair of fake legs still covered with the blanket, attached to an empty box.

He was a half-man, half-horse.

"A centaur," Castle said dreamily. "That is so cool."

I raised an eyebrow. Ryan and Espo were both slack-jawed, staring at Chiron.

"Wait, are you the original Chiron?" Ryan said suddenly. "Like Hercules' mentor?"

"The very same," Chiron sighed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll start that digging I promised."

"Thanks Chiron," Percy called, as the centaur cantered away. Annabeth ran her hand through the spray of the fountain, breaking the connection.

"Let's go do some digging of our own," I smiled.

* * *

**Hope u liked... Plz reveiw**

**-S**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Castle.**

**Chapter 6**

**Castle's POV **

We all headed back to the Precinct, after Percy and Annabeth were dressed decently.

"What's the plan Boss…Chief…Detective…person?" Percy asked.

Annabeth sighed.

"We'll get the autopsy from Lanie. Ryan and Espo see if we can track Michael's money trail in the month between when he left home and when we was found dead. I want to know

"He wouldn't have had any money," Percy said. "On our first quest, we barely made it to Brooklyn before all our stuff exploded."

"On the bus!" Ryan said excitedly.

"Yeah, my wonderful Uncle tried to blow us up…"

"Which one?" Espo asked.

"Obviously Zeus," I pointed out. "God of the Sky?!"

"But Hades had still sent furies with us on the bus so whatever really," Percy said

"Anyway," Annabeth said to Detective Beckett. "It would be better to try and track unusual circumstances…like supposed robberies, weird weapons observed by the police or people on the scene."

She glanced pointedly at Ryan and Espo who scurried to their desks.

"When we pull the files, Percy and Annabeth you look through them and try to figure out which are real occurrences and which are demi-god, specifically Michael-related. Got it?" Beckett said.

"Yep," Annabeth replied while Percy saluted.

"Good." Beckett sat at her desk, opening drawers.

"So, what are we doing?" I asked, sitting in my chair.

Beckett threw me a black marker. "We are starting the murder board."

"Excellent. But I want the red marker."

"Why?"

"It stands out on the board," I whined.

She handed me a red marker, taking the black one from me. "Are you sure you and Percy are not more directly related?"

"Pretty sure, although you know about my sparse knowledge of my family tree. Why?"

"He is so much like you, it should be a sin."

I turned to look where she was looking and saw Annabeth slapping Percy's hand to stop him from touching her hair.

"Why do you always try to touch it?" She rolled her eyes.

"It's curly!" he protested.

We both sighed, getting back to work.

"So how long have you too been together?" I asked Percy and Annabeth absentmindedly. No response. I looked up; Percy and Annabeth were nowhere to be seen. Beckett looked up at me and saw my concern.

"I'm sure they're fine. Annabeth is with him," she said smiling. "She keeps him out of trouble better than I keep you."

"Oh, very funny," I replied.

Javi came over to us, a folder in hand.

"So, I talked to the mother, she said she expected him home a month ago. He also took her credit card, so I tracked it down and it places him in New York City almost exactly one month ago. He drew $10,000 and used it to enroll in a boarding school: Yancy Academy for Troubled kids."

"That place is so cheap," I commented.

"Why, because your mother never sent you there?" Beckett replied.

"Ha ha, very funny detective." I rolled my eyes. "Maybe you could go there…"

"Anyway," Espo cleared his throat, "He paid the minimum fee, that is, no meals included."

"So there must have been somewhere we went for food," Beckett pointed out.

"We'll check that," Espo assured her, turning to go back to his desk. He almost bumped into Percy and Annabeth, who were standing right behind him, looking over his shoulder. When did they get there?

"There's a 24 hour Sonic two blocks from there," Percy said. "I used to sneak out of my dorm at Yancy and grab a snack when school got too insane. Then I'd meet up with my supplier and smuggle my goods into school via backpack."

We all stared at him, except for Annabeth, who just shook her head sadly.

"I know school is hard, Percy," Castle said softly, "But drugs?"

"No," Percy looked as shocked as we were. "Candy! I had an illegal candy stash and sold from my dorm-room almost every day."

"So Mike's body is en route from Yancy Academy to the address Lanie found, that is Percy's apartment." Javi continued, "Looks like he left just before school started. He was dead by 7:45 yesterday morning."

"He really was looking for you," Annabeth mused.

Hey, I got it," Ryan called from his desk. He printed one last page and added it to a ginormous stack of paper on his desk. "Every weird occurrence from Connecticut to here for the past 2 months."

"Well, we only need to focus on the month before this one, because we know Michael was here for the past month," I pointed out.

"There's your assignment guys," Beckett said, as Ryan handed half of the stack to Percy and half to Annabeth.

Percy groaned.

"You guys can go to that room right through there." Beckett pointed to our usual Rec. room.

"Ok," Annabeth said.

"By the way, we just heard from Chiron," Percy said, putting his stack of papers on my desk. "He said what he got from his research. Michael was one of the demigods who disappeared in the 2rd Titan war with Gaea and the giants."

"Huh?" Espo asked.

"You know the humungous earthquake in Greece 6 months ago."

"The one where all the civilians found they were untouched while the area was smashed to smithereens," Ryan asked from his desk, "That was you guys?"

"It took a lot of selective attacks and evacuation," Annabeth added. "So, Chiron thought Michael must have been working with Gaea and giants like a few of the demigods were. But then we defeated Gaea after we got out of Tartarus, and that was the last we heard of any of those demigods. We assumed they were all dead or missing in action."

"But if he was with Gaea, then why would he be looking for me?" Percy interrupted.

"I have no idea," Annabeth said to Percy. "But Chiron was in a hurry, said the lava wall had finally collapsed on someone, and he said he'd keep looking into it," she said to Beckett.

"Ok," Beckett slowly said. "Thanks guys,"

"How did you even talk to Chiron? There's no fountain in the Precinct," Ryan pointed out.

"Any water forming a spray will do," Annabeth explained. "So we borrowed the boys' bathroom."

"You did what now?" I asked.

"I used my invisibility cap," Annabeth said, gesturing to her navy blue Yankees cap in her back pocket.

"Does that really work?" Beckett asked incredulously.

"Stickler for reality," I muttered.

Annabeth took the cap and put it on Percy's head. Immediately he disappeared completely.

"Hey!" he protested. "Why do I have to be the guinea pig?"

"You already were a guinea pig," Annabeth pointed out, taking back her cap. "I saved you from a pre-schooly death."

"Oh, ha ha," Percy said, not at all amused.

"Anyway," Beckett said. "Castle and I will check out the school, talk to his friends and teachers. Javi, you and Ryan look into where else this kid went: where he ate, anywhere he hung out or frequented."

"On it," Javi said.

"Percy and Annabeth, you get to work on those papers," she said to them.

"Alright," Annabeth said, dragging Percy to the Rec. room.

"Castle let's go," Beckett said, walking to the elevator.

"Right behind you," I replied. "Hey Javi and Ryan, keep an eye on them for me?" I jerked my head in Percy and Annabeth's direction.

"Hey no prob," Javi replied. Ryan nodded. I hurried after Beckett, reaching the elevator just before the doors closed.

"Thought you weren't coming," she said nonchalantly.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," I replied solemnly.

* * *

**Just keep showing up Castle...  
Hope u liked, plz reveiw.**

**-S**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Castle.**

**Chapter 7**

**Beckett's POV **

In no time we were parking at the school: a sprawling set of low buildings made of red bricks and cement.

"Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD," I said, flashing my all access pass, and we entered the principal's secretary's office, which looked marginally better than the rest of the school.

"Mr. Adder will see you know," she said, politely ushering us into the adjoining office.

"Mr. Adder?" Castle asked softly. "As in the Black Adder?"

I glared at him so he'd shut up.

The principal, Mr. Adder, was standing by the window in his office, just staring outside. He turned to face us.

"Yes, Detective Beckett," he mused, almost giddily. "And…"

"This is Richard Castle," I said as we sat where Mr. Adder indicated.

"I assume you're here about Michael," he began. "Such a tragedy, really." He barely looked concerned, gazing at us lazily.

"How would you describe Michael?" I asked.

"He was rather troubled, but then most of the kids who come here are. Usually dropping out of school, changing schools every year, those kinds of kids."

I scribbled a note: check other schools. "Anything else?"

"Well, he was a new kid, just enrolled this year. He was one of the few who couldn't afford to pay for both food and board, so he just slept here and ate elsewhere between classes."

"Anything else about Michael?" I asked, making more notes.

"Anything different from his usual behavior?" Castle added.

"I wouldn't know, I'm sure," Mr. Adder mused. "You'd have to talk to his roommate."

We looked at him expectantly. He stared back blankly.

"And we would find him…?" I asked finally.

"Oh, yes, let me look up his name…"

Castle sighed.

Mr. Adder walked over to a big filing cabinet, pulling out drawers until he found the drawer he was looking for, and then pulling out files upon files. In this day and age, couldn't he have computerized the thing?

"Aha," he said finally. "Michael's roommate was Mark Holt. You could talk to him about Michael. He must be elated; he'll have the room to himself for now."

"Wait, have you already told the students about Michael's death?" Castle asked.

"The students have such knowledge of what happens on the streets that they probably knew all the details before the teachers."

Castle and I exchanged a glance. This school was just…

"Well, any idea where we could find him?" I asked sarcastically.

"He should be at lunch now…" He sighed. "I suppose I could ask one of the teachers; Ms. Gray? …to fetch him for you."

I closed my book with a snap. He had been so annoyingly unhelpful.

"Thank you Mr. Adder. You've been _most_ helpful," I spat.

Castle smiled at my sarcasm.

"Always glad to help the law." Mr. Adder smiled coyly. With that we headed off down the corridor.

"To the canteen…" I muttered.

"How do you even know where the canteen is?" Castle asked.

"Please Castle, all public schools are set up the same way in New York," I smiled. "Even the boarding ones."

The teacher, Ms. Gray, a tall, thin woman with grey hair in a tight bun, was waiting by the white double doors outside the canteen.

"Hello Ms. Gray," I said. "We need to speak to Mark Holt for a few minutes."

"Yes, I'm aware," she replied stoically. "Mr. Adder briefed me. One moment please."

She opened the doors behind her and yelled, quite uncharacteristically. "HOLT! Quit picking on the 9th graders and get out here!"

Castle glanced at me and mouthed 'split personality'. I ignored him.

"Is there an empty classroom that we could use to speak with him?" I asked, her as Mark made his way to her side.

"Sure. This way please," she said, walking down a hallway with Mark Holt in tow. Ms. Gray sat Mark down in a chair in the first empty classroom we found. Then she made to leave the room. Was this teacher for real?

"Ummm, Ms. Gray?" Castle asked.

She turned around reluctantly. "Yes?"

"Since Mark is a minor, we need an adult to witness the interview," I pointed out.

"Oh alright," she sighed, pulling a chair closer to where we sat across from Mark.

I watched the boy sitting across from me. He was short for his age, seeing as he was at least in the 10th grade. His hair was a messy black mop falling into bright hazel eyes.

"Mark?"

He looked up slowly, his eyes seething like he hated me for pulling him from his lunch/bully time.

"We want to ask you a few questions about your roommate, Michael Thomas."

"What about him?" Mark replied in a surly tone. I glanced at Ms. Gray, expecting her to reprimand him like she had in the canteen, but she wasn't even listening to the conversation.

"We understand he left the dorm early yesterday morning before school." I continued.

"Yeah. What of it? He usually did that. Was a real night owl…and an early bird."

"Did he ever tell you where he was going?" Castle asked routinely.

"Naw, Michael wasn't the type to share stuff, you know? None of us are."

"His body was found on the way to this address," I put in, handing him a piece of paper with Percy's apartment address written on it. "Is it familiar to you at all? Did Michael ever mention it?"

He glanced at the paper I held, then shook his head. "Nope, never heard of the place."

Suddenly, a brain wave. I interrupted Castle before he could voice his idea. "You said Michael was a night owl? What do you mean?"

Mark glanced at Ms. Gray. I knew that look- he didn't want to say anything in front of someone of authority.

"Don't worry Mark," I assured him. "All of this information is to help us find who killed your roommate and why. And everything you say here will be kept in strictest confidence."

I glanced pointedly at Ms Gray but she missed it completely.

"Right Ms. Gray?" Castle added.

She looked up at us, startled but then she composed herself. "Can we hurry this up please? I'm missing my lunch break."

Frowning, I turned back to Mark. "Well?"

He sighed. "Michael used to sneak out of the window of our room after curfew. There's no second floor so it's a piece of cake if you don't get seen by the night guard. He's a misery and he has The Adder on speed dial."

Castle smiled. "Ah I remember how I used to…" he caught me glaring at him.

"Right," I clarified, "You mean to the principal, Mr. Adder?"

"Yeah, we call him the Adder." Mark clarified, "Anyway, I knew he was going. And he knew I knew. But he knew I wouldn't snitch on him to The Adder, you know?"

I nodded; any public school kid would now that. Unless you were extremely new, and trust me, you'd learn fast through wedgies and swirlies.

"He never told me where he was going, and I never asked. But he always got back when I was asleep, and was awake before me in the morning." Mark was on a roll now, since he knew Ms. Gray didn't care one way or the other. "Some days he'd slip out and come back before breakfast- just in time to escape The Adder if he was real careful. And he was always careful. Like he never wanted to give the Adder an excuse to call his parents, you know?"

"That makes sense," Castle murmured to me.

"Yep," I muttered back, making a note.

"So what time did he leave last night?" Castle asked.

"The usual," Mark smiled, "He'd leave afterschool detention and head straight here. Shower change and leave around 5. I always guessed he was meeting with some friends for dinner. I know there's a Denny's round the corner and a 24 hour Sonic two blocks down but I figured the Denny's was too rich for his blood."

"What time would he come back?"

"I don't know," Mark frowned, "The first night I tried to wait up for him. Ya know, cuz my last roommate snuck out 'n' got himself kidnapped. But I fell asleep before he got back and when I woke up he was in the shower and there was a Sonic breakfast bag on his desk."

"Did Michael seem any different this week?' Castle asked. Took the words right out of my mouth. "Worried or upset?"

"Now that you mention it…" Mark mused. "This week he was coming back later and later…"

"Like what time?" I asked.

Mark thought for a bit. "Like he would leave around 3 pm, and then he would leave again like 7am, and barely make it back for classes at 9, sometimes with breakfast, sometimes without."

"Like yesterday The Adder nearly caught him eating in morning announcements; me and some of my buddies had to cover for him, say he had gotten up late cuz he'd been studying for a test. Barely got outta that with our skins."

Castle nodded understandingly. I'd bet he'd gotten his ass covered dozens of times.

"The Adder seemed like he wasn't buying it, but he had to believe us."

"Then what happened yesterday?" I asked.

"Well, Mike snuck out for the second time about 7:30, I thought it was kinda late, that he was gonna get caught for sure, and I didn't have another excuse…but then he just didn't show. I figured he was just sculling class yesterday, but he would have gotten a hell of a whooping if he'd shown up today."

"Well thanks Mark."I flipped my book closed and smiled, "You were a lot better held than Adder.

"Hey, no problem," he replied, grinning. "As long as you find the douche bag who did this to him. He didn't deserve that."

"You know for the other excuse," Castle smirked as we stood. "You could have said Mike was too busy ba-"

"Castle," I warned.

"Thanks Mr. C but I already used that one," Mark snickered, "Adder nearly blew a gasket."

"Are you done now?" Ms. Gray asked, "I haven't had lu-"

The drone electronic school bell cut her off.

"Sorry gotta run," Mark said, "I've got a Chem. class to catch."

"Thank you for your time Ms. Gray," I tried to hide the laughter in my voice. She glared at us.

* * *

**Hope u liked  
Plz Reveiw**

**-S**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Castle.**

**Chapter 8**

**Villains' POV (3****rd**** Person Omniscient) **

They walked into the apartment quietly, but as confidently as if they owned the place, throwing their things into the furniture. They immediately headed for the window, assembling their sniper guns, pulling the various pieces from each other's bags. The girl's bag held the compact muzzles that slid closed like a telescope. The boy's bag held the triggers and the butts. **(A/N I don't know guns so I just made stuff up.)**

"Don't miss," the girl said, as they lay in front of the opened window. "After the first shot they'll be alerted."

"You're the one who should worry about missing," the boy teased. "You know _she_ already doesn't like you."

"Please, like she likes you any more…" she sneered, not letting her fear show in her voice. They were both afraid of their mistress, terrified of crossing her path, which she had demonstrated the punishments of through countless fellow demigods.

The boy took a little piece of ambrosia from his bag, nibbling on it. It tasted like his big sister's apple pie, still smelting hot with cold vanilla ice-cream.

"Don't waste it," the girl warned, not even glancing at him as she watched the suspects through her sniper scope. "You know _she _won't give us any more."

"I know!" he snapped, "But she showed where to get these awesome sniper guns with tranquilizer darts." His grin rivaled the glint of the 10 o'clock sun against their rifles.

"Yeah," she sighed. "_She_ pays a lot more attention to us than our real parents do."

He nodded silently, watching their targets move around in the building across the street. They were finally settled, sitting beside each other at large desk in a simple room. Their backs were to their shooters, their heads bent over the files they were reading: the information needed to prove the boy and girl guilty.

"Ready?" the boy asked.

"I have been for ages," the girl answered haughtily. "Fortune is in our favour," she added seriously.

"Whatever," the boy replied. "I'll take the girl."

"On three," the girl said a smirk on her face. "One."

"Three." The boy muttered, as they always had, that was their way to count.

Two quick shots went off as one with the soft hiss of a pneumatic piston. There was a small 'crack' as the protective coating of the darts broke through the glass of the Precinct building.

The teens packed up all their equipment into their bags and left without a word. The information was theirs for the taking.

**At the Precinct...**

"Don't you think it's kinda quiet in there?" Ryan asked suddenly, jerking his thumb to the Rec. Room where Percy and Annabeth had entered just over two hours ago.

"Hmm?" Espo looked up, distracted. Then he grinned. "Think it's time to check on them?"

Ryan and Espo stood and walked over to the door of the Rec. room knocking before they stuck their heads in the door.

"Look, they fell asleep over their work," Espo said smiling, entering the room, Ryan on his heels.

"Umm, not quite," Ryan said carefully.

"What?" Espo said turning to face Ryan, who pointed at the two neat holes in the glass of the window to which Percy and Annabeth had turned their backs.

"They're still breathing," Ryan said, checking vitals quickly. "Thank God, or else Castle would have our heads."

"Bro, he's still gonna have our heads."

Espo saw the darts first. They each had one in the back of the necks.

"Yo bro, check this out." He pointed to the darts. "Should I..."

"No, let the M.E. deal with it," Ryan said, examining the floor under the window. "I got cases on the sill."

"Ok, let's get them out of here; mark this room as evidence for CSU to run the cartridges, the window, broken glass and the trajectory."

"Got it," Ryan said. "And we should probably play this one close to the vest...get Lanie to check on them."

"Ok, I'll call her," Espo said, stepping out of the Rec. room.

Ryan dialled for CSU to come sweep the room pronto. If this had anything to do with their case, and he was certain it did, they would need answers ASAP. He glanced at the papers, on the desk, snatching them up on a whim before following his partner out of the room and closing the door behind him.

Neither Ryan nor Espo saw the elevator doors open as they left the Rec. room. A girl and boy stood in the elevator, but they didn't enter the precinct. Upon seeing the detectives leaving the t room of the targets, the teens accepted failure and the boy pressed the down button immediately. The doors closed and the elevator descended.

"They'll both be fine," Lanie said, "they just need to sleep it off."

"Still, could we take them off the morgue table?" Ryan asked nervously, "If Castle comes in and sees this we're toast."

"That's if I don't tell him..." the ME teased. The boys paled.

"Come on; let's get em to the couch." Espo muttered lifting Percy's left side, leaving the right for Ryan.

"Oh, we are so dead..." Ryan muttered from behind his desk. They had somehow gotten Percy and Annabeth on the same couch so that their backs were facing each other and neither was in danger of falling off. However, the two kids had begun to squirm around at random and now they were just a tangle of limbs on the couch. It was adorable, but freaky.

"Maybe they'll wake up before Castle and Beckett come back." Espo sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"Not happening," Beckett's voice sneered from behind them.

"Aw, they fell asleep on the couch." Castle cooed.

"Not exactly..." Ryan said uneasily. Both Castle and Becket looked up, frowning.

**Beckett's POV**

Javi and Ryan nervously explained what had while Castle and I were at Yancy. Castle just sat at his chair by my desk, fuming; watching Annabeth and Percy like he expected them to wake up any second. You'd think he would have cooled off after he learnt they weren't in any real danger.

I know he wouldn't have been able to forgive himself if the snipers had used real bullets instead of tranquilizer darts. Technically, if we'd run them out of the Precinct, they probably would have been sedated at their apartment or on the roadside. That would have been much more dangerous for them.

I told him that, not really sure that he had heard me. But he nodded, sighed and muttered something about coffee. When he disappeared into the Break room, Ryan breathed a sigh of relief.

"He did leave us in charge them bro," Espo pointed out. "It's like if Jenny's relatives were to help with an investigation and getting knocked out on the job."

"I get it." Ryan glared at him.

"So anyway guys," I began before the air got charged with any more testosterone. "Got anything on where Michael's usual haunts?"

"Yeah actually, usually the manager at the Sonic remembers seeing him there for breakfast and dinner almost every day, and sometimes lunch. The Sonic is cheaper than the Denny's- which was the other restaurant in the area," Espo said.

"Yep, better food too," Ryan added. "And Michael was becoming Sonic's most frequent customer."

"Yeah, we talked to the roommate and he had the same idea about Michael and his finances," I mused.

"The other place people remember seeing Michael a lot is at the Skate Park on the corner of 141st and Lex." Ryan added.

"Yeah he's also a regular at that awesome hot dog and hamburgers place right down the block..." Espo smiled wistfully. "And they have wicked slushies."

"Why would he get slushies form some hamburger place if he can get them from Sonic?" Castle asked, returning with two coffees and handing one to me. "They have 25 different flavours."

"Touché," Ryan replied.

I took a sip; perfect. Damn, how did this guy always get coffee just right?

I glanced up to see Castle watching me. He smiled that little half-smile of his, looked at the murder board (which was incredulously empty for an ongoing case) and sipped his coffee.

"So, Ryan and Espo, you guys canvass the Sonic see if anyone remembers seeing Michael with anyone suspicious the day before he died, or if he made it to the Sonic before he died. Castle and I will check out the skate park."

"Excellent," he replied. "Can we get hot dogs while we're in the neighbourhood?"

I sighed. "Come on Castle. We'll even bring Percy and Annabeth back a slushie each."

"Done." He glanced over at Percy and Annabeth still asleep on the couch. "Percy's gonna need a blue one though." He paused, his brow crinkling for a few seconds. "No adverse side effects right?" he asked worriedly.

"None whatsoever," Espo reassured him, for about the 5th time.

"Good, his mom would kill me. He's her only son."

He set his empty coffee cup on the table and headed for the elevator. Ryan and Espo grabbed their jackets and followed him.

I glanced at Detective Hastings.

"Keep an eye on them?" I mouthed to her, nodding my head in Percy and Annabeth's direction.

She glanced at them and smiled, sending me the ok signal.

I drained my coffee cup, setting it on the table beside Castle's and headed for the elevator, pressing the button for ground floor.

"Oh, by the way Detective Beckett, did you enjoy your coffee?" Castle asked innocently.

I ignored him, pressing the 'open doors' button on the elevator a little harder than was necessary. The boys snickered.

* * *

**If anyone wants to correct my gun thingie plz PM me  
Hope u liked  
Plz Reveiw**

**-S**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Castle.**

**Chapter 9**

**Percy's POV **

I woke up before Annabeth. She was tangled up with me on the couch. Her arms secured around me, one on my waist, and one around my neck. Her head was on my chest, eyes closed and peaceful.

I shook my head slightly, trying to clear it, but trying not to wake Annabeth. Where were we again? Oh, yeah the 12th precinct. We had been going through some really boring news reports, picking out monster attacks different form some random nut-job reporters when I had felt a pain in the back of my neck like a bee sting. Then I woke up on the couch.

"Oh he's up..." a lady's voice sighed.

"And totally adorable..." another lady said.

I frowned, glancing around the room and nearly jumped out the couch. The police office was filled with; wait for it; POLICE PEOPLE!

Why were all these police people staring at me? Didn't they have work do to? I almost wished the scary Boss Lady, Beckett's boss, would come and make them get back to work.

Annabeth stirred and slowly opened her eyes. Then she nearly had a heart attack as she saw the crowd around our couch.

"Is it just me?" I began

"Nope," she replied. "I see the crowd of creepy people too."

"Ok back off guys, nothing to see here." A female detective with blond hair pulled back in a ponytail pushed her way through the crow and started shooing people back to their desks.

"I swear, Captain Gates steps out for one minute and all hell breaks loose," she muttered to us once the crowd was finally dispersed. "I'm Detective Hastings by the way."

"Ok," Annabeth said, diplomatically. "Thanks."

"Well, Beckett told me to keep an eye on you, but I don't think she meant it that literally," she laughed. "They should be back in a moment, so just sit tight for a little."

"Sure," I replied, "Can we get coffee?"

"No prob,"she called walking towards the break room.

"You remember being in the Rec. room too right?" Annabeth asked me suddenly.

"Yeah, and then something stung me..."

"In the back of my neck," Annabeth finished.

"Freaky," I replied.

"Maybe not," she mused. "They might have seen us through the open window and somehow made us fall asleep."

"To get the news reports Ryan pulled up for us?" I asked.

She nodded. "That means there must be something in there that's important."

"Well, since we woke up on the couch," she continued, "I figure someone in this Precinct moved us here and has the papers..."

"Unless the people who shot us have them," I interrupted.

"Yes, Mr. Ray of Sunshine, that's a possibility; and then we can finish going through them later,"

"Maybe with Nico and Thalia's help," I smiled at the thought of us four ADHD dyslexic teens going through piles of papers.

"You know as well as I do that Thalia won't help look through new reports from a month ago for a hint of monsters." She laughed. "Not willingly anyway,"

"I'm still going to call them," I replied. "Nico left me his number somewhere..." I started searching my pockets.

"I cannot believe that you, a demigod, are going to actually use a phone," Annabeth said, disapprovingly.

"It won't hurt," I protested. "And I've done it before, while I'm at school." I asked Detective Hastings if I could use a phone and she leant me hers.

Nico answered on the first ring. "Hello?"

"Hey Nico, It's Perce, I'm calling from the precinct."

"Any new leads on Michael?"

"Yep, and we might need you and Thalia's help."

"As usual," he replied. I could hear the smile in his voice. "Ok, I think she's on her way there already, I'll be there soon as well."

"K, see you soon."

I hung up. Annabeth was still glaring at me.

"See?" I said. "Aren't phones useful little devices?"

"When they're not leading monsters like s GPS tracking device straight to your location," she replied sensibly.

I glanced absent-mindedly at the Rec. room.

"Hey, look! It's like an actual crime scene!" I pointed at the room, sealed off with yellow crime tape. People with weird equipment kept trekking in and out, "with the yellow tape and everything!"

Annabeth sighed. "What were you expecting Percy?"

"I wonder where they keep that stuff." I mused. "That would be excellent for Halloween..."

"I wish," a familiar voice said behind us. We turned to see Rick as well as Detectives Beckett, Ryan and Espo. "I tried that already," Rick continued. "Iron Gates keep them under lock and key."

"Darn," I said, disappointed.

"But as compensation, have a slushie." He handed me a regular Styrofoam cup with a plastic lid and a huge red straw. Beckett gave a similar one to Annabeth.

"You didn't go to that awesome hamburger place in the Skate Park did you?" I asked excitedly

"That we did," Rick said, sitting on the couch. "And it's a blueberry one."

I slurped happily.

"And Pink lemonade! How did you know?" Annabeth asked Beckett.

"Wild guess," Detective Beckett replied with a smile. She headed over to the murder board.

The elevators opened again and Thalia and Nico joined us.

"Alright," Beckett said, a black marker in her hand. A picture of Michael was already on the murder board. Beckett began writing and talking, while the rest of us listened. Annabeth and I slurping away (quietly) and Thalia looked totally uninterested but she was actually paying attention and Rick spinning a red marker in his hands.

"So, Vic is Michael Thomas..." Beckett pasted his picture to the board.

"And a demigod, son of Apollo," Annabeth added.

"Flip the board so we can do the demi-god side of the case on the other side," Castle suggested, seeing Beckett at a loss for where to write that particular fact on the murder board where Gates would see it.

She followed his advice, adding demigod to the other side of the board.

"He goes to Yancy High..." I muttered shivering, poor kid, "And paid minimum fee for classes only."

"We cased out Sonic where his roommate, Mark said he would usually eat, and the skate park. Ryan, Javi what did you find?"

"Well, he was a regular at the Sonic. The manager always saw him order the cheapest thing on the menu before and after school," Espo began.

"And up to last week, Michael's usual waitress, Ms. Katherine Dole, said he was a little more distracted than usual, and they noticed every day he was there a girl was in the corner booth, who never ordered anything to eat or drink."

"Whoa," Castle said.

"What?" Ryan and Javi asked simultaneously.

"Some similarities popping out," Beckett said shortly.

"This girl have a name?" Castle asked.

"No, but we have a description; Ms. Dole says she was Asian teen with short black hair and brown, drawn-on eyebrows." Espo read from his notepad.

"Our mystery girl always wore black jeans with a light coloured sweater," Ryan added.

"Alright," Beckett added this mystery girl to the murder board under the Sonic table.

"That's it. The staff was all surprised not to see him for two whole days," Ryan said.

"Yeah, they're actually gonna have a kind of remembrance night for him," Espo added.

"Ok..." Beckett said. "So at the Skate Park, same kind of deal. Mr. Benny who's run the hot dog shop for ages remembers Michael distinctly. He was the only customer who was really a regular."

"Benny used to give him free toppings," Castle added.

"Nice," Percy commented.

"Someone was following him at the Skate Park too, one of two guys usually: a tall Caucasian boy with brown hair and black eyes and a short Indian boy with black hair and blue eyes, obviously contacts. But lately it had been the Indian boy."

She added this information to the murder board as he spoke.

"What's going on over there?" Nico asked pointing to the Rec. room

"Well, they're running the room for samples, fingerprints anything that could lead us to the people who shot Percy and Annabeth with tranquilizer darts," Beckett stated matter-of-factly.

"You're kidding right?" Nico asked, glancing at Percy.

"Nope," Percy replied. "We woke up on the couch."

"We were looking at all the papers Detective Ryan pulled up for us to track Michael from Connecticut to here," Annabeth added.

Nico's face fell. "That's what you wanted our help with wasn't it?" he asked.

"And who said you weren't smart?" Percy teased.

"CSU should be tracking the trajectory for the darts now," Beckett pointed out. "Then hopefully we can get some more clues as to who the shooters were."

"Two shooters?" Ryan asked.

"It had to be simultaneous shootings or else either Percy or Annabeth would be alerted," Castle mused.

"Detective Beckett," one of the CSU detectives caller her over, and of course, the three members of her team and the four demigods followed her so there was quite a crowd at the entrance to the Rec. room.

He looked slightly startled at the amount of 'under aged' personnel in the precinct.

"Their helping on my case," Beckett assured him.

"If you say so Detective. I am Chief Investigator William Grant.

"Chief Investigator Grant, I assume you have some good news for me and my team."

"Well, we tracked the trajectory and figured you'd like to see it," Investigator Grant said.

"Of course," she replied, leaving us demi-gods looking though the louvers as best we could. Thalia sat on the sill looking at her nails while the rest of us practically pressed our faces to the glass.

"The trajectory seems to lead to an apartment in the building across the street. We identified it as room 26B."

"Ryan?" Beckett asked.

"On it," he replied, heading to his desk.

"The tranquilizer guns seemed to have a protective casing on them that allowed them to break through the window without deviating from their course." He held up n evidence bag with two small broken black casings on it. "No finger prints..."

"Could never be that helpful," Espo muttered.

"But they are very rare and would be sold only at a few stores in town. This is the brand and model... " He held out a sheet of paper to the detectives.

"Javi," Beckett said.

"Already on it," he replied, taking the paper the investigator handed to him and heading to his desk beside Ryan who was pecking away on his keyboard and talking on the phone at the same time.

"And as soon as we can, we'll release some people from this room and send them over to that apartment," he continued.

"Excellent," Beckett said. "Thank you Investigator. As soon as Ryan pulls the name of the owner we'll be heading over there."

"Will you be taking them?" the investigator asked, gesturing to us by the window.

"Of course, they have a link to our Vic," Beckett replied without missing a beat. "Thanks again Investigator Grant."

"Just doing my job," he replied, returning his attention to the other detectives working around him.

Ryan literally came running up to Beckett as she left the room. "Apartment belongs to a Mrs. Irene Shapero who lives in Vietnam. Apparently she leaves the apartment open for her nephew Alabaster King. She forced him to get cleaned up by pure force of her will power."

"This nephew have a background?" Beckett asked.

"Post army?" Castle said hopefully.

"Even better, secret services, worked as a sniper."

"Great," Beckett said. "Anything Javi?"

"Two of those stores no longer stock those tranquilizer guns as they had their licences revoked, but the other three said they'll contact me in the afternoon after the check their inventory."

"Alright," Beckett said. "That's enough for now, let's move out, visit that apartment."

"Are we taking uniforms?" Javi asked, grabbing his coat. Ryan took up the picture of the Alabaster King and the sketches of the three kids that had been stalking Michael.

"Nope, should be a simple entrance and CSU sweep," Beckett said, pressing the button to open the elevator doors.

"Vests?" Ryan asked.

Detective Beckett paused.

"Yeah, but we'll pull them on at the apartment," she said finally. "I know we don't want to walk across the street with them on."

"Unless someone wants to die of heat stroke," Espo replied.

Annabeth and I dumped our empty slushie cups and stepped onto the elevator and Beckett pressed the button for the ground floor.

* * *

**Thnx for reading, plz reveiw.**

**-S**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Castle.**

**Chapter 10**

**Castle's POV**

We had hardly exited the building when I started talking. It's not a crime; I just wanted to have my head on straight before we went inside that apartment.

"So, the shooter from this apartment killed Michael," I began.

"We're still waiting on the official autopsy; Lanie should have it ready when we get back," Beckett interrupted.

"Then, somehow this sniper knows information to incriminate him is in the precinct with Percy and Annabeth," I continued, not missing a beat.

"He and his secret services sniper buddy drug Percy and Annabeth, planning to steal the papers," Beckett added.

"So, he didn't want to kill anyone else?" I pointed out.

"No, he was already guilty over Michael..."

"But he still doesn't want to get caught so he goes for the papers..."

"Only to see Ryan and Javi coming out of the room with the papers he wants so he leaves," Beckett finished.

"Are they always like this?" Nico asked Espo.

"Every case," he replied, rolling his eyes at us.

"What about the demigod side of things?" Percy asked Beckett.

"Maybe it's just a coincidence?" Beckett replied, which meant she didn't have an answer.

Yet.

"There is no way in hell I'm going up in that thing," Thalia sniffed, pointing at the elevator.

"Ditto that chica," Espo said, staring at the deformed lift. It looked like cardboard cut out in the shape of doors with marker decorations. Soon, a guy stumbled out and went straight to the bins. The lobby reeked of vomit after that.

"To the stairs!" Percy cheered sarcastically.

"Ryan, Espo, you guys go get the doorman," Beckett instructed. "See if he can positive ID our nephew or the girl form Sonic." She handed them the folders with the pictures.

"While you escape the puke stench," Espo muttered, walking away. "Sure boss."

So the rest of us started the everlasting trek to the 15th floor up the disgusting stairs. I'll spare you the details, but Percy said he'd once been on a ship that was overrun with monsters and the walls there looked better than this.

At about the 5th floor, we heard heavy breathing and footsteps. Javi and Ryan were soon in view, breathing hard and taking the steps two at a time.

Javi reached first, pumping his fist in the air yelling, "I win!"

"Cuz you tripped me on the first flight of stairs." Ryan panted as they integrated themselves into our trek line.

"Boys, the doorman?" Beckett asked from behind me.

"Yeah, so our doorman is incapable of identifying any of our suspects," Ryan complained.

"Cuz the guy's an idiot!" Javi ranted. "As a doorman, either tell me you seen the people or not. Don't tell me how fake the girl's eyebrows are. That's not what I asked ya."

Beckett smiled. "Still show the picture and sketches around to the apartments on the 15th floor."

"Will do," Ryan replied.

"As long as they smarter than their doorman," Javi grumbled.

"Real nice place..." Nico muttered dryly as we hiked up the steep stairs to the 15th floor.

"And these stairs are ginormous..." Thalia grumbled from the lead.

"Maybe it'd be easier if you took them one at a time..." Ryan smiled from his place at 4th in our urban hiking line up the old dusty stairs of Jonathon Laden Apartment Complex. We'd all come to the agreement that we were _not_ riding in the rickety elevator, even if it meant hiking up 15 flights of stairs.

"Come on, guys, were almost there," Percy said encouragingly concentrating on the steps in front of him and Ryan's heels.

"Shut up Mr. Sunshine..." Thalia snapped.

"Well I'm _sorry_ for trying to be optimistic," Percy snapped back, going around Ryan and Espo in two extra bounds to get closer to his cousin. "Just because you're gloomy doesn't mean we all have to be Mr. Storm-cloud like your _daddy_."

I don't think I'd ever heard Percy talk to anyone like that, much less a family member. The four demi-gods had explained the godly side of their family tree back at the Precinct.

None of them really liked it that much but technically, Nico, Percy and Thalia are all cousins since their dads are the big three, even though their moms didn't know each other. And believe it or not, Nico was actually the oldest os the three since him and his big sister Bianca were born before WWII.

Percy and Annabeth also didn't like to talk about it since Annabeth's mom, Athena, was Zeus's daughter... kinda-ish. Somehow; springing, fully-grown, from a man's split skull isn't what I would call a miracle of birth. Still that made Percy Annabeth's second cousin, and it didn't help that Athena didn't like Percy because she and Poseidon had had bad blood between them.

Suddenly, Nico was in between Percy and Thalia, who had stopped at the top of the 10th flight of stairs. The three of them were standing in the middle of the way, halting our progress.

"Guys..." Beckett stared to go around me but Annabeth beat her to it. In a split second, she was in between Percy and Thalia, holding each of them by an ear, much like how Beckett used to do to me.

"Do you want this building to be struck by lightning, swept away by an inland tidal wave, or get eaten by the ground?" Annabeth snapped, "Cuz that is what would happen if someone killed one of you guys. And right now, it looks like all three are happening today."

Nico had somehow dodged Annabeth's attack but she managed to push him to landing floor. Now when he tried to say something she turned to glare at him. He immediately shut up.

"Apologize," she glared at Percy and Thalia. Nothing happened. She twisted their ears, making them cry out.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry!" Percy finally said twisting his body to compensate with the pain on his ear.

"You too Thals," Annabeth instructed, releasing Percy's ear.

"Fine, sorry..." she muttered, glaring at Annabeth.

"Good," Annabeth smiled, "Nico get up, we're moving."

"Y-yes ma'am..." he stammered, shuffling into the now moving line.

* * *

**Scary Annabeth!  
Hope u liked, Plz reiveiw.**

**-S **


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I don't own Catle or PJO**

**Chapter 11**

**Castle's POV**

We finally reached the 15th floor. There was a threadbare carpet on the floor. The hallway gave one a trapped feeling: no windows or openings except for the 4 or 5 red doors with brass numbers on each of them.

"If this Jonathan Laden is worth it, please remind me to donate some money so he can fix his elevator," I said breathlessly. "And the carpet."

"Oh Castle," Beckett replied smiling, not out of breath at all. "You're out of shape."

"Am not," I replied, indignantly.

Ryan and Javi went knocking on doors while we opened the creaky red door with the brass numerals 26B on it.

"You guys stay outside until I tell you that you can come in ok?" Beckett said to the four demi-gods, who nodded. As we entered the smell of must and what seemed like years of dust that covered the whole apartment hit us like a freight train.

"Someone missed spring cleaning," I muttered. Beckett rolled her eyes at me before she returned her attention to the crime scene.

"Someone has evidently been here," she replied, indicating the footsteps through the dust that lead straight to the window and straight back to the door.

Her phone rang. "Beckett." She answered it before the second ring. "Uh-huh, we're up here already. And you might not want to risk the elevator: 15th floor and turn right."

"CSU's on their way," she turned to inform the demi-gods, who we thought were still standing outside. The four of them stood awkwardly at the doorway.

"We, um, let ourselves in..." Percy smiled nervously.

"Whatever..." Beckett sighed, "Just don't touch anything..."

"Pretty small footprints," I commented. "Kinda small for a grown man's."

"And two sets," Beckett replied, pointing. "We'll get CSU to take pictures of them for reference."

"If they ever climb all those stairs with their equipment," I thought aloud. Beckett snorted.

"Next let's check the window," she suggested. "They shot from there."

I bent down next to the window sill while Beckett pointed to the parallel marks on the sill.

"From the rifles," she commented.

I looked down under the sill. "What's this?" I asked, gesturing to a few crumbs on the floor.

Beckett grabbed an evidence bag and scooped some of the crumbs into it.

"We'll get CSU to run it. Lanie as well, maybe she'll recognize it."

"Can I see that?' Annabeth asked, pointing to the bag of crumbs. Beckett handed it over for Annabeth to study.

"Looks like ambrosia," she declared. "What do you guys think?" The others all took a look and agreed.

"So, that means there were demi-gods up here," Percy pointed out.

"Say again?" Javi asked as they approached the door.

"Anything?" Beckett asked him.

"Negative," Javi replied shortly.

"There are only 2 occupied apartments, one with an old lady who never sees or hears anyone..." Ryan explained.

"Including us," Javi muttered.

"And the other is a lower class business man who practically lives at the office, he hasn't seen anyone weird lately either."

"What we got in here?" Javi asked, glancing inside 26B. "Attack of the dust bunnies?"

I smiled while Beckett explained, "Two sets of small footprints coming and going from the window. There are marks on the sill from two guns and ambrosia?"- Annabeth nodded – "on the windowsill."

"Hey Javi would you be able to get something else form the marks on the sill like approximate height of the snipers?" I asked.

Javi shrugged. "I can try."

Beckett gestured for him go inside.

"This really is attack of the dust bunnies," he mumbled as he made his way to the window. He peered at the sill and nearly kneeled or lay down in all the dust, before he seemed to think better of it and stood upright.

"They must have been really small," he said when he rejoined us. "Marks under the window indicate that they were kneeling at that window, and anyone taller than me probably would have had to lie down and take the shot. I can't know for sure though," he added. "With all the dust and the fresh crime scene."

"So what is ambrosia?" Ryan asked.

"It's food for gods. We demi gods can eat a small portion of it to help us heal and recover from injuries, but if we eat too much of it we can literally burn up," Annabeth explained.

"The amazing part is that it tastes like your favourite food in the whole world," Nico added.

"So, this is proof that a demigod was here?" I clarified, gesturing to the bag Annabeth was handing back to Detective Beckett. Ryan walked along the hallway back to the staircase.

"Or someone who had contact with a demi-god," Beckett replied.

"I thought I heard something. CSU's here," Ryan interrupted. "They need a bit of help with their stuff though," he added. Javi and Castle groaned.

"Get to work boys," Beckett smiled, leaning on the wall and stripping off her gloves.

CSU took pictures of the footprints and the room, and a sample of the ambrosia before they left.

"What's the easiest way to get all this stuff back down?" one of them complained.

"Maybe we could roll if down the stairs?" the other suggested, shutting up as soon as he saw Detective Beckett watching him. Javi, Ryan and I exchanged a smile.

"What are you thinking Annabeth?" Percy asked suddenly.

"Well, we said there were 2 sets of footprints in there right? For the two snipers. And we're assuming it's the same people who killed Michael."

"What if..." Thalia began. She stopped, looking shocked to see everyone looking at her.

"I think you're thinking what I'm thinking," Annabeth said with an encouraging smile.

"What if they were the same people stalking Michael from the park and Sonic. They would be small enough right?" Thalia asked.

"And then they would be demigods," Nico added. "So there's the connection to Michael."

"And they watched us and knew the papers that had information about them on it were with us," Percy thought aloud. "But three people were stalking Michael..." Percy added confused.

"Up until a few days ago," Javi put in.

"Yeah, why only two sets of footprints?" Ryan asked.

"Easy," Annabeth said. "If he was here, he could have been out here the whole time. As a lookout. Then his footprints wouldn't be in the room, they'd be lost in this carpet."

"I agree," Becket continued.

"But those 'stalkers' were just kids," Javi complained. "How would they be snipers?"

"They're demigods," Thalia answered darkly.

"Anything's possible," Nico added.

"Either way..." Beckett started, she was interrupted by her phone beeping, and she glanced at it.

"It's Lanie. She has the autopsy results. Let's go."

I was ahead of her as we reached the stairs.

"You're in a hurry Castle," she said smiling. "What's the rush?"

"Down the stairs must be easier than coming up," I replied.

"Only if you're not a klutz like Percy," Thalia joked.

"Yeah, then you'd fall and crack you skull open." Nico snickered.

"I'm _not _a klutz!" Percy frowned. No sooner had the words left his mouth; he tripped on the flat-surface carpet of the 15th floor. There was an awkward period of silence. Then Thalia and Nico started snickering softly. Soon the boys and I joined in till everyone was laughing but Annabeth and Kate, who were trying hard not to laugh for Percy's sake. Percy however was still flat out on the floor.

"Come on Perce, acting's over," Annabeth chimed in his ear. No response.

"I'll buy you blue candy if you get up..." she tried again.

"I have a better idea..." he rolled onto his side revealing a black and blue eyebrow. He picked up a sniper holster where his eye had been resting. "Find me the rest of this gun and I'll shoot my cousins with it."

Kate grabbed the holster with my handkerchief and began bounding down the stairs.

"What's the rush?" I asked, smiling.

"If I can catch CSU at the bottom of the staircase I want them to have a look at this," she replied, already on the floor below us.

Percy was still glaring at Nico and Thalia from the floor.

"Well would you look at the time..." Nico tapped at his bare hand. "Dr. Parish is waiting on us isn't she...?"

And with that, he and Thalia hurried down the stairs after Beckett. We followed suit.

* * *

**Hope you liked, sorry i've been busy this summer and I have inportant exams this year so mybe you'll hear from me in Christmas. IKD**

**Plz Reveiw!**

**S.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: i don't own PJO or Castle.**

**Chapter 12**

**Annabeth's POV**

We were back at the Precinct in record time, and of course we all wanted to go down to the morgue and talked to Dr. Lanie Parish. The woman, who had been in the first meeting with us with Apollo that we hadn't seen since, was the Medical Examiner.

But I guess Nico and Thalia were running from Percy which made no sense since we were all going the same place. So we stopped by the break room and got some ice for Percy, which he gingerly put on his eye before glaring at his cousins.

"So Michael was killed by blunt force trauma to the back of the skull," Lanie said, pointing to the image on her smart board.

"So he didn't see his attacker," Beckett mused.

"Maybe cuz Michael knew his attacker?" I suggested.

"Or he was running from his attacker," Beckett added.

"Anyway," Lanie said. "It looks like he was hit with a kind of bat. It left a shard in his skull." She picked up a small plastic bag and handed it to Beckett. "I haven't been able to ID it yet."

"It looks like some sort of metal..."Beckett mused, "But I don't know what type." she handed it to me, and the guys looked over my shoulder.

"No doubt," Nico said.

"Celestial bronze," I added, almost involuntarily touching my thigh where my celestial bronze knife was.

"Huh?" Lanie asked. "Celestial?"

"It's a special metal," I explained.

"Like imperial gold used by the Romans," Percy added.

"Which we use to make weapons," I said.

"Weapons?" Ryan asked. Like what?"

"Knives," I said.

"Swords," Percy added.

"Shields and spears," Thalia added.

"Anything really," Nico clarified.

"This is a stronger link to the demigod side of things," Castle pointed out.

"Ok, anything else Lanie?" Beckett asked.

"There were some unidentifiable remains in his stomach, apart from the cheapest of the Sonic menu," she added. "Maybe you guys could take a look?"

I stepped forward to glance into the microscope that Lanie had gestured to.

"Let me guess," Castle said. "Ambrosia?"

"Yep," I replied. "That's ambrosia. There might even be some nectar there too."

"Nectar?" Espo asked.

"Godly drink, like the drink version to ambrosia," Thalia said quickly.

"Alright, we need to get to the murder board," Beckett said in a very business-like tone. "Lanie if you find anything else weird..."

"You know it girl," Lanie replied. "Now shoo. This is way too many live people to be in a morgue."

**Percy's POV**

After filling out murder board, of which the demi-god side was looking much fuller than the regular crime solving side, Beckett turned to Espo and Ryan.

"Espo, Ryan, even though this is pointing more and more to demigods, still check on Alabaster and his habits, foot size everything. We need _something_ to tell Gates," Beckett said, tapping her marker in her palm.

"On it," Javi replied, heading back to his desk with Ryan on his heels.

"You guys," she looked at us, "head to the couch and take another whack at the reports Ryan pulled."

Nico, Thalia and I groaned but we did as she asked.

"And what are we doing?" Rick asked, sitting down in his chair as Beckett sat in hers.

"Well, I am behind in my paperwork...unless you'd like to help?" Beckett suggested, smiling slyly..

Castle looked repulsed, then worried. "I think I'll head home for a little actually."

"Oh really? Anything up with Alexis?" Beckett asked, almost truly concerned.

"Actually, she's been going crazy studying for the entrance exam for Stanford. I need to make sure my apartment is still in one piece."

"Tell her good luck and I'm sure she'll get in," Beckett said.

"Like she doesn't already know that," Rick replied, picking up his coat.

"Tell her I hope she gets through," I added.

Rick nodded.

Beckett sat and watched him walk to the elevator, her paperwork abandoned in front of her.

"I'm pretty sure he feels the same way about you that you feel about him," Thalia said suddenly.

Beckett stiffened. "W-What?"

"I'll tell him that for you," I said smiling as I headed to the couch with the others.

"Don't be so mean Percy," Annabeth scolded me.

"I don't know what you guys are talking about," Beckett said, shuffling papers in front of her.

"Sure," Nico replied, sarcastically.

But Beckett was lost in her paperwork and didn't (or pretended not to) hear us.

**Castle POV**

I turned the key and opened my apartment door carefully, then sighed in relief. Everything seemed to be in one piece and in its proper place. I entered the living room stealthily, as if jarring movements would cause the whole place to fall apart.

Alexis came sprinting down the stairs.

"Hi dad."

"Hey," I said stunned as she rushed past me to the kitchen, grabbed an apple and rushed back past me back to the stairs.

"Bye dad."

I just stood there stunned.

My mother let herself in the front door just in time to hear Alexis' door slam shut.

"Ahh, still rushing around like a whirlwind, I see," Mother commented.

"She's been like this...?" I asked.

"All day."

"Hmm." I put down my coat and headed up the stairs.

"I wouldn't if I were you," Mother warned me.

"Come on, she just grabbed some food, she must be on a break," I countered, smiling. I knocked on Alexis' door before turning the knob and poking my head in.

She was eating the apple, but so much for the break idea. She was eating while sitting on the floor skipping through one of the million text books around her.

She didn't even hear me open the door.

"Hey sweetie," I tried.

"Hi dad," she said quickly between bites, not looking up.

I looked for a place to sit. Now I realized why she wasn't sitting on a chair. Every available surface seemed covered with papers, sticky notes, books and index cards. I carefully cleared the nearest chair, setting all the papers carefully on top of the others on her desk, and gingerly sat down.

"So, Percy's in town. He dropped by the precinct today," I said.

"That's cool," she replied, still staring at the book.

"Yeah, he and some of his friends apparently had something to do with our murder victim."

"Hmm," she said all non-committal.

"Oh and he and Beckett said to tell you good luck and they know you'll do excellently."

"Oh. Tell them thanks." She turned the page.

"Ok," I said, standing. This one sided conversation was getting nowhere. I headed to the door then turned back. "Oh, by the way Gram, says she's shaving her head to try and get a part as the cancer patient in the newest Broadway showing of 'My Old Lady'.

"That's nice," Alexis replied.

"And I think I'll be coming to teach at your school next week."

"Cool," she said.

This wasn't even any fun if she wasn't participating.

"Ok, I get it," I said finally. I navigated through the books to get close enough to her to pat her head. "Don't study too hard or else you'll use up all the smarts before you even get to Stanford."

She finally looked up. "Ok dad."

"Ok Pumpkin."

I closed the room door carefully behind me.

"Scary," I announced to Mother as I came down the stairs. "That is not natural."

"She feels like she's obligated to study as hard as she can so she can get the highest grade of all the entrants," my mother quipped. "What's wrong with that?"

"Well, it's more like blackmail," I muttered.

"You have to admit the logic fits Alexis perfectly though," she added, closing the fridge. "She feels it's the only and best thing to do."

"Obligations..." I muttered to myself. "Maybe the kids did know Michael. But they were obligated to silence him."

"Richard?" Mother asked worriedly.

I ignored her. "So there must be someone else behind them, giving general instructions...someone bigger...maybe that's the third person from Thalia's theory."

"Richard?" Mother asked again.

"Gotta get to the precinct," I said hurriedly. Halfway to the door, I glanced up the stairs towards Alexis. "Can you just make sure that she eats something other than that apple before she falls asleep over her books?"

She smiled. "You know you don't have to ask me that."

"Thanks Mother." I shut the door behind me and headed downstairs to hail a cab.

My phone rang as I waited impatiently for the elevator to reach the ground floor.

I glanced at it, hoping it was Beckett, only to be disappointed by the caller I.D. 'GINA' and I picture of my publisher glaring at me from my phone screen.

I stuffed the phone back into my pocket. If it wasn't Beckett, it could wait.

* * *

**Thnx 4 reading. Plz reveiw**

**My other stories are giving me trouble. Will try to update soon.**

**-S**


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